Most jewelry
makers start out with one technique. For me it was single needle bead weaving.
I learned as many stitches as I could; peyote, herringbone, the dreaded right
angle weave (RAW to beaders) and brick stitch were all added to my repertoire via
basic classes at my local bead store.
And most
jewelry makers will learn new techniques, often because what they see in their
imagination does not exist (yet) in the real world.
For example,
I have heard the following from my fellow jewelry making students in one class
or another:
“I'm taking a
class in Art Clay silver because I couldn’t find clasps that I liked and I
decided to learn how to make my own.”
“I studied
polymer clay because I couldn’t find marbled beads in the color combination I
wanted.”
“I’m going to
take a class in knotting so I can update my Grandmother’s pearl necklace with
crystals.”
The point of
departure from my beloved seed beads arrived over the long New Year’s weekend.
I searched the internet and local retail sources for a bead or a focal piece
with a primitive-looking roadrunner image to add to my Tila tile necklace
called, well, Roadrunner.
This necklace
has lots of shine:
So I wanted a
focal piece with a flat or matte finish. I could not find anything anywhere
that matched the idea I had for this embellishment.
On New Year’s
Day I searched through my supply closet and uncovered a package of epoxy clay
that I had purchased a while ago and never opened. The product comes in two
parts (A & B) which are mixed together in equal parts to make moldable clay
that remains flexible for about 90 minutes. Finished items air-dry and cure in 12
-24 hours with no baking required, which is a plus because I do not own a kiln
(yet – heh!). I chose the copper color clay to work with for my experiment in
making my own focal for the Roadrunner piece.
Here are the
packages prior to mixing:
Once the two
parts were mixed I rolled out the clay and made a flat oval shape that would
fit in the center of the Roadrunner necklace. The smooth sides were roughed up
with the round side of an awl. I used this same tool to make two holes through
the top of the focal so that I could string it after it was cured.
Then came the
really challenging and time-consuming part. I have very little training in
drawing, so I made several sketches of a stylized roadrunner that were spectacularly
unsuccessful. At first I was making the sketches the same size as the oval bead.
After lots of tiny squiggles that looked nothing like any bird known to man, I
hit upon the idea of using technology. I made some full-page sketches and used
a printer/copier to reduce the size of the best image so it would fit on my
clay blank.
I placed the
small printed image over the clay blank and used a sewing pin to pierce through
the paper into the clay all around the outline of the roadrunner image. After I
peeled off the paper I made sure that the holes were all of uniform depth. I
added some cross-hatching in the background with the side of the same sewing
pin and embedded a small crystal in the clay for the roadrunner’s eye.
This is the
focal before it dried completely:
Once the clay was
completely dry and cured, I mixed up a wash of light orange acrylic paint and brushed it over the
focal. I wiped off most of the wash so that there was more paint in the
depressions than on the surface. This is the final result:
For a
first-time effort with clay, I am happy. I imagine this would have been much easier if I had actual clay tools
but it was also fun to improvise with the items I had available. After I have
stitched this oval focal piece to the Roadrunner necklace, I will show you how
it looks when it is all put together.
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